As an 80-something, this essay makes me happy. A forty-year-old is having the same problems with technology that I have. He also feels loss of control. He too can't fix things and he doesn't understand things. Oh happy day!
Here's a correlated irritant, the increasing impossibility to upgrade or fix things, sometimes by mere misfortune, sometimes by design.
Case in point: even basic Mac computers a few short years ago were moderately upgradable or fixable. It was fairly easy to put an SSD in, add some memory or replace the battery.
Now the upgrading is completely impossible, so one has to pay apple a MEGA-premium to get the highest specs right out of the box, for fear of making the already-expensive machine obsolescent even faster. No more ability to buy those upgrades from third parties later down the road at a third of the price.
Or John Deere making it impossible (and in some cases illegal) for a farmer to fix their tractors in the field, so they can get back to work ASAP. Instead, expensive techs with proprietary software are mandated to be able to look under the hood.
I'm a big fan of the right to repair, as companies have no case, moral, economic or otherwise to justify these practices, yet we tolerate them.
The enshittification of everything is indeed real and going to become more of a problem in the future. The problem is we're all dumb enough to keep buying those products instead of flat out refusing them.
This used to be a specific reason not to buy Apple products, since they started the egregious trend of making their products 'tamper proof' for those with the audacity to try to upgrade or repair their hermetically sealed appliance, but now just about everyone does it. (Well now their other enshittification tactics like easy-break phone screens and classic incompatibility with everything outside their terrible ecosystem fill that role well enough.)
I remember having a Lenovo laptop with a one-screw hatch to upgrade the hard drive, and a battery you could swap out with the push of a button - features that every laptop would have if they didn't diabolically focus on forcing users to replace the entire unit.
Modern laptops often place the paper-thin battery in the most unreachable place under all other components requiring a total teardown, melting of glue, and destruction of several one-way fasteners before you can reach it. Might as well write on the back "abandon all hope ye who enter here".
However, I did replace the battery of a 2019 MacBook Air recently, and while it was no picnic, it was doable with patience and good instructions.
I took it as a challenge and prevailed, but yeah, it's not within reach of non-mechanically inclined or impatient people.
I too had a pre-lenovo IBM laptop (T42p) back in the day. Built like a tank, highly serviceable and it came with 2 batteries, so I could swap for double the working time. Those times are long gone.
well now your not just aware of the word "enshittification" but of the reality of how we've allowed oligopolies to deliver less for more $. They've enshittified everything they can.
"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." - Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Chief Engineer, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), portrayed by James Doohan.
I feel your pain, more and more systems seem to have a “co-pilot” that either offers to re-write something, operate it, add a comment or talk back. I, like other commenters, am advancing in years and would really like to opt out of having these systems running my life…
The whole co-pilot intrusion, part of the deification of so-called AI, drives me batty. Until I figured out how to disable but not uninstall Co-pilot in Word, I spent most of my time with the software yelling "No I DON'T want help writing this sentence. Go away!!!"
Paul Krugman said in a fairly recent column that some refer to AI as "souped-up autocorrect." I now take deep cleansing breaths and think of that phrase when I see headlines saying what AI can do for us all.
Anything invented after you are 35 and can only be explained, understood or operated by someone between the ages of 10 and 15 should be banned from public use as a long term mental health hazard.
Great article. Two more stories just like yours. I have a google assistant that runs my voice based tv remote control. No choice for me, it comes with the provider. It is also tied into Tivo which is a second layer of control. Because it is a Google assistant every time I ask for something it brings up Youtube channels. The first few times I got angry and would not politely curse at it. I was reprimanded each time by the Assistant. I have about 500 channels all organized by type of channel. So I memorized where sports, news, movies, streaming and regular channels are and to browse I use the on screen guide. Nothing made today works correctly. I have a stacked dryer in my house that was replaced twice in 2 years because the user interface electronic screen stopped working. The third time I insisted on a repairman as it was still under warranty. When the repairman took the top off he explained that they had built in a power supply for the electronic screen that was at the back of the dryer and the fact it was stacked caused the very taught power supply wire to unclip from the electronic user interface. A wire that was 4 inches longer would have meant that clip would never be dislodged and the smart features would work. My in laws had the same washer and dryer that worked unaided for 50 years. They had dials and nothing "smart". I am almost 70. There has been lots of change but as our former fearless leader used to say change is not always progress.
I come from farmers and pioneers so it feels natural to me that i would a) know the ins and outs of how stuff works and b) be able to fix it myself or have a friend who could. But as the author points out with his new/used car, the options are now limited. To get a car I wanted with the safety features for winter where I live. . . it comes with a big ol' screen whose functions I will probably completely learn by the time I'm trading in the car for a new one. And I'm GenX, and my work is partly in technology. It's just too much, in too many places, for our brains to be able to hold it all and still do normal human things like eat and sleep.
"I turned 40". James, the frustration turns into anger and then to serious determination...to get rid of the damned things. My iPhone6 is just my telephone and my DayTimer. Nothing else.
Plug your Xmas lights into the wall...or throw the friggin' things out. Christmas lights in the summer are tacky anyway.
Alexa always replies, “Good evening Richard” then confirms my request. I say thank you, to a machine. It’s like swearing at a screwdriver that’s the wrong size. I hope Alexa isn’t operating the cremation oven and upset that I don’t thank her for initiating the burners. She might slow cook me instead.
I’m convinced it’s a marketing ploy. All the different smart home systems make their software incompatible with all others in minor ways. The objective being for you to get frustrated and dump all other systems except theirs.
As an 80-something, this essay makes me happy. A forty-year-old is having the same problems with technology that I have. He also feels loss of control. He too can't fix things and he doesn't understand things. Oh happy day!
Exactly my reaction. Mind you, I'm a mere 70-something!
Spring chicken.
Here's a correlated irritant, the increasing impossibility to upgrade or fix things, sometimes by mere misfortune, sometimes by design.
Case in point: even basic Mac computers a few short years ago were moderately upgradable or fixable. It was fairly easy to put an SSD in, add some memory or replace the battery.
Now the upgrading is completely impossible, so one has to pay apple a MEGA-premium to get the highest specs right out of the box, for fear of making the already-expensive machine obsolescent even faster. No more ability to buy those upgrades from third parties later down the road at a third of the price.
Or John Deere making it impossible (and in some cases illegal) for a farmer to fix their tractors in the field, so they can get back to work ASAP. Instead, expensive techs with proprietary software are mandated to be able to look under the hood.
I'm a big fan of the right to repair, as companies have no case, moral, economic or otherwise to justify these practices, yet we tolerate them.
The enshittification of everything is indeed real and going to become more of a problem in the future. The problem is we're all dumb enough to keep buying those products instead of flat out refusing them.
This used to be a specific reason not to buy Apple products, since they started the egregious trend of making their products 'tamper proof' for those with the audacity to try to upgrade or repair their hermetically sealed appliance, but now just about everyone does it. (Well now their other enshittification tactics like easy-break phone screens and classic incompatibility with everything outside their terrible ecosystem fill that role well enough.)
I remember having a Lenovo laptop with a one-screw hatch to upgrade the hard drive, and a battery you could swap out with the push of a button - features that every laptop would have if they didn't diabolically focus on forcing users to replace the entire unit.
Modern laptops often place the paper-thin battery in the most unreachable place under all other components requiring a total teardown, melting of glue, and destruction of several one-way fasteners before you can reach it. Might as well write on the back "abandon all hope ye who enter here".
You're right.
However, I did replace the battery of a 2019 MacBook Air recently, and while it was no picnic, it was doable with patience and good instructions.
I took it as a challenge and prevailed, but yeah, it's not within reach of non-mechanically inclined or impatient people.
I too had a pre-lenovo IBM laptop (T42p) back in the day. Built like a tank, highly serviceable and it came with 2 batteries, so I could swap for double the working time. Those times are long gone.
well now your not just aware of the word "enshittification" but of the reality of how we've allowed oligopolies to deliver less for more $. They've enshittified everything they can.
I couldn’t agree more and I’ve been in the IT business for 40 years.
"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." - Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Chief Engineer, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), portrayed by James Doohan.
I'm sorry, James, I'm afraid I can't do that," (HAL)
Same with somebody in their 60s. When it works, wonderful. When it doesn't, frustration.
I feel your pain, more and more systems seem to have a “co-pilot” that either offers to re-write something, operate it, add a comment or talk back. I, like other commenters, am advancing in years and would really like to opt out of having these systems running my life…
The whole co-pilot intrusion, part of the deification of so-called AI, drives me batty. Until I figured out how to disable but not uninstall Co-pilot in Word, I spent most of my time with the software yelling "No I DON'T want help writing this sentence. Go away!!!"
Paul Krugman said in a fairly recent column that some refer to AI as "souped-up autocorrect." I now take deep cleansing breaths and think of that phrase when I see headlines saying what AI can do for us all.
A suggested rule 4:
Anything invented after you are 35 and can only be explained, understood or operated by someone between the ages of 10 and 15 should be banned from public use as a long term mental health hazard.
I spent far to much of the holiday yesterday trying to troubleshoot a doorbell cam issue.
These things are a thief of time.
Great article. Two more stories just like yours. I have a google assistant that runs my voice based tv remote control. No choice for me, it comes with the provider. It is also tied into Tivo which is a second layer of control. Because it is a Google assistant every time I ask for something it brings up Youtube channels. The first few times I got angry and would not politely curse at it. I was reprimanded each time by the Assistant. I have about 500 channels all organized by type of channel. So I memorized where sports, news, movies, streaming and regular channels are and to browse I use the on screen guide. Nothing made today works correctly. I have a stacked dryer in my house that was replaced twice in 2 years because the user interface electronic screen stopped working. The third time I insisted on a repairman as it was still under warranty. When the repairman took the top off he explained that they had built in a power supply for the electronic screen that was at the back of the dryer and the fact it was stacked caused the very taught power supply wire to unclip from the electronic user interface. A wire that was 4 inches longer would have meant that clip would never be dislodged and the smart features would work. My in laws had the same washer and dryer that worked unaided for 50 years. They had dials and nothing "smart". I am almost 70. There has been lots of change but as our former fearless leader used to say change is not always progress.
I come from farmers and pioneers so it feels natural to me that i would a) know the ins and outs of how stuff works and b) be able to fix it myself or have a friend who could. But as the author points out with his new/used car, the options are now limited. To get a car I wanted with the safety features for winter where I live. . . it comes with a big ol' screen whose functions I will probably completely learn by the time I'm trading in the car for a new one. And I'm GenX, and my work is partly in technology. It's just too much, in too many places, for our brains to be able to hold it all and still do normal human things like eat and sleep.
"I turned 40". James, the frustration turns into anger and then to serious determination...to get rid of the damned things. My iPhone6 is just my telephone and my DayTimer. Nothing else.
Plug your Xmas lights into the wall...or throw the friggin' things out. Christmas lights in the summer are tacky anyway.
I know these feelings and irritations oh so well!
Alexa always replies, “Good evening Richard” then confirms my request. I say thank you, to a machine. It’s like swearing at a screwdriver that’s the wrong size. I hope Alexa isn’t operating the cremation oven and upset that I don’t thank her for initiating the burners. She might slow cook me instead.
I’m convinced it’s a marketing ploy. All the different smart home systems make their software incompatible with all others in minor ways. The objective being for you to get frustrated and dump all other systems except theirs.